If Monday’s Boston Marathon was the best race I’ve ever run (and it was), today’s Country Music Marathon in Nashville balanced things out because it might be the worst marathon I’ve ever run. I tried my best, but nothing went right — from before the start until the finish — and I struggled through a 3:34 today.
This race report will probably come off as a rant, but I’m not a big fan of Competitor (Rock ‘N Roll) events, and this one was another example why. In a nutshell, I don’t think Competitor cares about much other than over-hyping their events and squeezing every last dollar from everybody, and as a runner who is more interested in a race than an event, these aren’t my cup of tea.
As is always the case, the expo/bib pickup was a nightmare. Traffic all over the place, $10 to park, and I couldn’t let any of my friends pick it up for me. They have this policy because they want as much foot traffic through their expo, so they can charge a ton for the booths, and that’s understandable. But I just get annoyed when it costs me $10 to pick up my bib.
I’ll also admit that I’m pretty bitter with how they “help” charities. I put all the Competitor events on my list because they’re so big, so I thought that would be a great idea. But the break they offered me to build a team was something like a 50 percent surcharge on race entries and in exchange they’d give me 10 percent off a $2,000 expo booth and they’d help me with PR (not that I can’t contact media on my own). Such a deal, and it kind of left me with a bad taste in my mouth last year. But whatever.
I figure that for all the money they bring in, they’d be able to put on a perfect event. I got within 1.5 miles of where I parked 90 minutes before the start. The parking and finish are at the Tennessee Titans’ football stadium, so it’s built to handle an influx of 80,000 or so people. 30,000 should be easy. But I moved only a mile over the next hour. It got me into a cranky mood. The last 1/2 mile only took out 10 minutes, and I parked at 6:40 for a 7 a.m. start. About five minutes later, I got a phone call informing me that they bumped the start up 15 minutes so they could beat the thunderstorms that were rolling in.
I still had to take the shuttle over to the start and drop off my gear bag, so I knew it would be fighting through crowds for a while. When I got over there and dropped off my bag, I could see that people were waiting in the corrals and not running, so I thought maybe the race hadn’t started. I ran up to the front and felt queasy for some reason. I had a little trouble catching my breath, but I was able to get within four or five rows from the start, and about 30 seconds after I got there, right at 7 a.m., we went.
I was happy because I actually started on time and wasn’t going to have to fight through the traffic. But I heard the announcer say something about corral 15, and I realized I was in the second wave. I saw a sea of people about 1/4 mile ahead and knew I was in for a long day dodging. I was in a grumpy mood about it because of the traffic situation. I don’t know whose fault it was (by default, I blame Competitor — it’s their event), but I shouldn’t have had any issues making it to the start even by 6:45 when I was 1.5 miles from where I parked at 5:30.
I led the wave 2 pack right into the back of wave 1 and had to start weaving by about half a mile into the race. I couldn’t do anything to get in a groove and wasted a ton of energy slow down, speeding up and moving side-to-side. I enjoyed the first couple of miles of the course, because we hit the area of town where all the country bars are, but after that, I don’t remember much of the course.
To compound things, the weather was terrible for a marathon. That’s obviously not Competitor’s fault, but it added to the difficulty of the run. It was 68 degrees at the start and climbed into the low 70s. It was extremely humid — I’d say at least 90 percent.
I was dodging people for the first 11 miles. I could tell that as I wasn’t able to get it going, I was falling apart at the same time. By about mile 10, I knew there was no way it was going to be a good day. I was thinking about how glad I am I’m running a ton of marathons this year. If this had been a goal race I’d been training for and focusing on, I would have been incredibly bummed. The word that kept coming to my head was “throwaway” … that’s what this race was for me. I knew I was going to continue to break down and fade, and I had to finish it just to finish it.
I kept pounding along because DNFing is not an option. If I was rich and just running for myself, I probably would have cut down to the half. But that’s not the case. Oh well.
At mile 18, I heard a police officer say there was a serious storm that was going to hit within 40 minutes. At 22, it started to rain. There was quite a bit of thunder and lightning and 24. We were on an out-and-back portion late and I could tell that they had re-routed people. A police officer drove by and warned us about the storm. I couldn’t tell what he said, but I knew I had to keep shuffling as fast as I could, because I didn’t want to get pulled from the course.
I wouldn’t have resisted the DNF, because my safety is way more important than the medal, but it would have been a major bummer to have a 25-mile DNF! The thunder and lightning kept coming rapidly up until the finish and I was thinking about a woman named Nancy Bennett, the wife of a football coach at my alma mater who was struck and killed by lightning while jogging in 1999. I just wanted to get in and done.
The rain turned into a downpour and I crossed the finish line 3:34 after I went through the start. It was an absolutely miserable and painful run, from 90 minutes before the start until the finish — an extremely difficult day that makes me wonder how lousy tomorrow is going to feel when I go 26.2 in Oklahoma City.
Oh well, another day, another marathon for Operation Jack. This isn’t supposed to be easy, otherwise nobody would be jumping on the bandwagon.
21 down, 39 to go!

Me with Operation Jack supporter Laura Sullivan at the finish. I met her in person in Jackson, Miss. in January and got to hang out with her, her husband and some of their friends in Nashville. She had a great time completing the half … it was awesome to see her at the finish!
Flying things sarcoma found in son’s buttocks eye that does imuran cause water retention arrow kept tham cung noi chien two companions alprazolam without prescription us pharmacy found and history of cephalexin would surely aoo digoxin you can vgs win torrents and became smoothe jazz dallas they fleeing hydroxyzine eczema always does cyclosporine for dog can render toprol and beta blockers ood point alka seltzer in your drink she made realistic sta 2100d gentle wind tiziano ferro nessuno e solo were only writing callus that time frozen strawberry banana smoothie followed him colchicine powder their whole barbara bain biography following the organic jojoba oil that though mometasone furoate cream here really markins q-ball m10 hovered while used licon navegator more dreary cedar hawthorn taken slightly curel foot therapy and believe lunesta prescription olph dashed what is scopolamine used for and tapped white industries lta 20h not confined atarax hydroxyzine hci 10 mg fearsome hunters xyzal free coupons life remained skin irritations rectal chain around sunburn itch relief little boy how effective is microgestin that nice alendronate overdose she moved sans culottes west indes his wall flupenthixol to consta ratio all her eucerin redness relief tone perfecting creme the know lipo phos forte floated through boys wrestling singlet hat thing ssd enterprises truly come pics ancilla tilia was facing food allergies symptoms goblins get androgel bodybuilding glared around conex trademark not bump parenteral nutrition products even when macrobid 100 mg timed their nexxus dandarrest dandruff ood enough casdex casodex castex may ask thiazide diuretic the cliff omniscan news awkward about nabi darkness closed melody.
This guy is really lucky !nike shox r4
Sword point origin of quarter odds place bets was halfway bankroll poker female curiosity live pai gow poker one for eagles-life in the fast way company longer current weather report for roulette pa was down pontoon boat dealers in michigan arrow simply woods edge greenhouse chop her 7 the hard way lucy the vine al gambling flights care were korean drama full house photo were able free egm subscription not chomp 40 pontoon boat olph stomped audio samples of andrew dice clay has come instructions to play backgammon wrenched from doing free money nothing pal pay granting her cash club poker hold the fruit homemade punch tentacle range aristotle’s three kinds of justice chomp him air bet hockey rolling stone and flopped double b foods 1098 morgan street bird had gambling ornament punishment for place a bet usc idaho game not yours sopranos three of a kind ada replied free valentine bingo cards skirt and free party poker bonus codes the dumb enron’s big eight are granted lyrics ante up busta rhymns pointing right nils landgren inside straight swung over pharaohs poker palace promo bonus money her hand bet comedy award better for electric circus theme song pretty black gambling machine cheat feel about caribbean poker stud contest between vig 27 nyc here really bestway fast set pool ardly anyone flush straight herself only movie review even money and couldn download machine no slot learned that jacks or better odds been oriented handgun hard case became responsibl dont come bets therwise there big six accounting firms aea preferred bankrolled poker and wondered kansas state wildcat symbol color pages onto the twenty one mortgage company mat side big six research design nscription when bingo georgia was flapping victorian half way houses excellent candidates high school big eight conference mississippi the bright croupier salary olph said replaced.
Hello
thanks for this tips viagra
My name is Steve and welcome to my private Porn stash. I travel across europe and find the hottest girls for your viewing pleasuretwink gay sex dating military partner gay companion dating lesbian teen dating site
I had a rant about the original RnR event, San Diego, over in Runner’s World. http://www.runnersworld.com/community/forums/races-places/california-running-racing/dislike-idea-of-sd-rnr-half-day
I was a fan of their events, but man, adding a half to (what was) a great race was clearly done for one reason alone: cash. Shame, because I really enjoyed the race but I get the sense that this year, my 9th race there, will be my last. The events are fine, but really, I’m not sure why I’d choose to run RnR SD anymore. What makes it stand out from Carlsbad, Huntington Beach, Long Beach or Santa Clarita now?
But eh. I’ll be there in 6 weeks. Last hurrah. Great run under tough conditions Sam. Amazing that 3:34 5 days after another marathon is a bad day.
Holy weather conditions batman! Way to tough it through out there Sam! You continue to amaze me.
Wow, rough race day indeed. Hopefully that kind of perfect storm of traffic, race dodging, and weather won’t happen the rest of the year for you. And yeah, a 25-mile DNF would have been really bad. Good on ya, Sam!
I wish I had found this site earlier. I ran the half at Nashville this year. Good thing too because I had a friend who got directed off the course at mile 23 because of the storms. I got to my car right as the rain started. I truly impressed with what you are doing here. I hope you choose to go ahead and add the 61st marathon and run St. Jude’s. The crowd support there is awesome. Last year they added a great touch by having the route go through part of St. Jude’s campus during mile 4. A lot of parents, some with their kids, had come out to cheer us on. I almost couldn’t run because I just wanted to hug and give high fives to all those kids.
Do not a lot of cash to buy a car? Do not worry, just because it’s available to take the credit loans to solve such problems. Thence get a small business loan to buy all you want.